Many people weren’t surprised that the iPhone 4s’ much-hyped “personal assistant” was more of a scenery gazer when riding shotgun. A few readers even sent me "thank you" e-mails for taking the cool out of what they see as another form of distracted driving.

“Since this type of software was developed, our friends in highway safety have commented about how this is just another form of 'text and drive' that gives the user a false sense of safety,” wrote Erik Wood, CEO of Seattle-based speech-to-text app development company Otter, which posted a link to the column on its blog. “Your report was one of the first we have seen that actually reviews this problem.”

Wood admitted that he’s not exactly objective “since we developed an idea based on the belief that sustainable change on this issue is going to come from the end user deciding to focus on one thing at a time -- especially when driving!”

As I noted in the column (and discovered only after taking Siri for a text drive), using voice-to-text mobile apps to send a text message while driving is technically not allowed under Oregon’s hands-free cellphone law, which didn’t foresee such technology when it was written in 2009. “It’s a matter of the law not catching up to technology yet,” said Oregon State Police Sgt. Dan Swift.

Of course, some people called and sent e-mails wondering how police would even know they’re texting using voice commands in their cars, since they wouldn't be holding the phone and using their hands. “From the road,” said John Ferrarese of West Linnn, “wouldn’t it just look like you’re making a hands-free phone call with your hands-free earpiece?”

View full sizeAppleAn iPhone ad on the Apple website shows a driver receiving and flawlessly sending a handsfree text with Siri.

Good point. Where things get dicey is when there’s a crash, especially one involving an injury or death, while engaging in hands-free texting. If investigators subpoena your phone records, that interaction shows up as a text. Period. “Texting is texting when it cases a crash that injures or kills someone,” Swift said. “And we’d pursue a citation and charges that way.”

In the OregonLive forums, readers commenting on the story debated whether the state needs to do a better job of keeping up with new technology.

“Oregon's attempt to manipulate behavior holds us back because technology changes faster than the manipulators can think up new laws to satisfy their need to control our behavior,” wrote Tombdragon. “Ultimately we all loose because the restrictions make us more and more uncompetitive socially, and economically.”

Several other readers disagreed with that point. “So, tombdragon, you think we'd be more competitive without speed limits, traffic lights, or DUI laws? And that we should be free to choose which side of the road to drive on?” Oh, snap!

Android fans contacted me to insist that voice-to-text apps on their phones perform better. In reality, the consensus is apps such Vlingo and Sensory, while decent at dictation, lag behind Siri’s features. (Vlingo's website, however, features a cartoon driver texting hands-free.) Siri is a standard feature on the world’s most popular smartphone and is widely considered the technology to beat. Also, Vlingo and Sensory are not part of a big-money marketing campaign that suggests that the technology makes hands-free texting legit, as Apple does with Siri.

Of course, there were the Apple fans who accused me of playing the contrarian and purposely trying to make the tech giant’s popular products look bad. (Full disclosure: I’m a huge Apple fan and Machead who bought the first iPod -- yes, the one with actual moving wheel -- and has owned every iPhone since the first. But objectivity is objectivity.)

“You're dumb,” wrote one commenter on YouTube, where the video was also posted. “Just say ‘Text my wife 'How﻿ was your day?' Works for me.”